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The purchase of a George Bellows painting has signalled a major change in policy at the National Gallery, ending 190 years of showing only European artists.

A 53-year-old man has been charged following a break-in at Shapes auction house in the west of Edinburgh last year.

The trade have alerted ATG to the latest scam guide trying to con dealers into paying thousands of pounds for useless advertising.

The fundraising campaign to buy Van Dyck’s final self-portrait for the National Portrait Gallery will continue into the summer.

This pencil drawing by John Constable inscribed ‘Binfiled Decr. 6th 1816’ is believed to have made when the artist was staying in Binfield in Berkshire whilst returning from his honeymoon in Dorset with his wife Maria.

The first stand-alone tribal art sale held by Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury was topped at £44,000 by this 19th or early 20th century Yombe seated figure from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Contemporary art sales in London last week raised a hammer total of £254.6m, a record for an auction series in this category in the capital.

EXHIBITION – The young Ethiopian artist Ephrem Solomon (b.1983) first contacted Tiwani Contemporary in 2011, when the gallery was just opening in London’s Fitzrovia with the aim of promoting the work of contemporary artists from Africa and the diaspora.

Like those London buses where you wait forever then two come along at once, two versions of a rare Olympic torch limited to just 33 examples turned up in separate Drouot auctions in Paris within the space of just ten days.

To mark the 150th anniversary of Archibald Knox’s birth, the Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair will host a special exhibition celebrating the work of the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts designer at this year’s fair.

A young clock conservator, Jonathon Kelly, is being given an opportunity to work on a rare 18th century musical and mechanical clock made by George Pyke.

A single-owner collection of Modern British art will be offered at Boningtons’ sale of fine art, antiques and Asian works of art in Loughton, Essex on February 26.

The latest report from the Department of Culture Media and Sport shows that of 12,089 export licence applications for 51,606 works of art from May 2012 to April 2013, just 28 cases were referred to the Export Reviewing Committee by experts.

A rare visitor to the recent numismatic sale at Lockdales in Martlesham Heath, Ipswich was a group of three convict tokens.

High Road Auctions set a new house record with the sale of this French bronze and cloisonné jardinière c.1870 by Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-92).

More than 1000 lots are on offer at Chorley’s two-day sale on February 20-21 at Prinknash Abbey Park, Gloucestershire.

This 19th century French ormolu-mounted boulle side cabinet is attributed to the Paris-based ébéniste-marqueteur Mathieu Befort (1813-80).

There are very few positives to take from the latest findings of The Antique Collectors’ Club’s Annual Furniture Index (AFI). For reasons of fashion and function, the English antique furniture market remains in a parlous state and no category from early oak to Georgian mahogany held firm.

Leading the latest series of Impressionist & Modern auctions in London, a textbook Cubist still life by Juan Gris (1887-1927) sold for £31m at Christie’s.

Last October, South Africa House in Trafalgar Square, London hosted an exhibition of artworks in the image of, and inspired by, Nelson Mandela.